People Are More Capitalistic Than They Think. That Includes Self-Identified Socialists

I hold the belief that the 2020 election cycle will be about the following things: immigration, the economy, and the very soul of this country. Granted, the first two things are usual in elections, especially in this day and age, but that last one ought to make people realize just what it is we are facing.
 
Much like 2016, we are at a crossroads: we either elect a conservative like Trump, who loves America, or we elect a socialist like (insert literally any of the Democrats currently running), who hates America as it was founded and wishes to turn it into a nation where the government controls just about everything aka a socialist country.
 
And if you’ve been keeping up with multiple polls, you see the terrifying rise of people who consider socialism to be better than capitalism. While those people are still the minority (roughly 40%), the trends are seemingly terrifying. But there is good reason I say “seemingly” in that sentence.
 
You see, according to Rasmussen, 84% of people have a favorable opinion of free markets and 41% say the same about socialism.
 
It is at this point that your brain might be trying to do some seriously challenging mental gymnastics to understand the logic behind that. The vast majority of people like free markets, but about 41% also like socialism? That doesn’t make any sense! And if we were strictly talking about economic ideologies, then yes, you would be correct. But that is not what we are talking about.
 
Before I get to that, however, let’s look at all the numbers.
 
Within the poll that talked about free markets, 87% of Republicans favored it, 85% of Independents said the same as did 81% of Democrats.
 
“Voters strongly believe that Free Markets are better than Socialism when it comes to promoting economic growth (55% to 12%), creating quality jobs (52% to 13%), and giving everyone a chance to succeed (44% to 19%),” according to Rasmussen. “Voters give Free Markets a more modest advantage on helping people in poverty reach the middle class (37% to 22%), creating a fair society (35% to 25%), and reducing poverty (33% to 24%). Voters are close to evenly divided on which system will be better at reducing health care costs: 30% say free markets and 26% socialism. However, it’s worth noting that there is very little support for requiring all Americans to get health insurance through a government program.”
 
So what is it that we are looking at here? We’re looking at people who, economically, agree with capitalistic, free market ideologies, but don’t think socialism is the opposite of those things. They don’t view socialism through the lenses of economic ideology, like you and I do, but through the lenses of the government being an avenue capable of helping people who are in need. They like the idea of government-issued health insurance like Obamacare, but largely do not like the idea of that being the only option.
 
So what we have here are a bunch of people who are largely misguided as to what socialism actually is. The definition of socialism/communism is the government being the one who owns the means of production. Meaning there is no such thing as private property because the government controls and/or regulates everything, from your home, to your car, to your job, to your phone. Absolutely everything is controlled and regulated by the government. You cannot get something that is outside of the government’s control. It’s part of the reason China is so adamant about getting Google to censor things in that region for their citizens.
 
But as we can plainly see, that is not the definition self-proclaimed socialist voters tend to follow. Matter of fact, when it comes to the economy, the less government involvement, the better. This is something even those “socialists” believe in, as we can see from how many people, INCLUDING DEMOCRATS, prefer free markets over socialism.
 
For the record, these self-proclaimed socialists do not include people like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They know perfectly well what socialism is, that’s why they’re in the government. They get to expand their own power if they back socialism and in turn, deceive others as to what socialism is to make it more appealing. Why else do you think they adamantly avoid talking about Venezuela and even California? Apart from being precise examples as to what socialism does to a country or even a state, they will often claim that that’s not “real” socialism, and that “real socialism” has never actually been tried.
 
Of course, that’s a load of garbage, but people will believe it. That’s why there are people who call themselves socialists but will often times support capitalistic economic policies. They don’t truly know what socialism is.
 
Not that I blame them for their ignorance. Socialism was not really a topic that was covered when I was in school (likely because the term itself was still fairly taboo at the time) and I wouldn’t have learned about socialism had I not done my own research or talked with family about politics. Granted, I also have the advantage of having lived in a fairly socialistic country before (I’ll take “words that have never been spoken before in the history of the world” for 1000, Alex), so I know what socialism is like in a sort of first-hand manner, but still. Schools don’t tend to teach about socialism, and if they do, they don’t actually teach what it really is and what it has led to.
 
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: if people knew what socialism truly was, most people would completely drop it. We know this because Scott Rasmussen himself, in a recent interview with The Daily Signal, said that “only 1 out of 3 people who say they like socialism think it leads to higher taxes and a more powerful government.”
 
Meaning only 1 out of 3 people who say they like socialism actually know what socialism is. Still a scarily high number, but taking that in relation with just about everyone in the country, and the percentage of people who both like socialism and know what it is shows to be far lower than what polls show. That’s 33% out of the 41% of people who support socialism - that's only 13.5% people. One can easily see how truly few people there are out there who want to see this country be turned into the Soviet Union.
 
But for the most part, the vast majority of Americans far prefer the current economic system we have of free market economics, regardless of political party affiliation or political ideology. Most people are free-market capitalists and simply see government as an option, not as a deterrent, to that system. Really, that’s where the problem lies, as the more government there is, the less individual freedoms there are, including economic freedoms, and the task is really to educate people as to what socialism truly is (and most people are shocked when they find out what it really is, so that tells you something).
 
Of course, another problem comes in the fact that these people, despite their own personal opinions, will vote for those who actually are socialists and will implement actual socialist policies that intrude on people’s economic freedoms (and other types of freedoms) and that can cause severe harm to the country. The task then becomes properly defining socialism and exposing the fact that the people running for office are not the same kind of socialist the people voting for them claim to be. Bernie Sanders wants Medicare for All in the form of only the government being the option for health insurance. A lot of people like the term “Medicare for All” because it suggests an option for people to take, but recoil when they learn that it would actually take away people’s options for health insurance.
 
Actual socialism is not popular in this country, but what needs to be done is to properly define socialism. Most people who claim to be socialists aren’t actually socialists. They are just as capitalistic as you and me, just view the government as a force for good and not as a force for evil that can destroy economic and other kinds of freedom.
 
I just hope we can properly define socialism for the vast majority of Americans before we turn into Venezuela.
 
Colossians 2:8
“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”
 
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Author: Freddie Marinelli.